Kick Back

by K J

  “Playing football, I hope.”

  Helena gave an almost silent chuckle, her red lips curled at the edges. “Oh, I don’t think so.” She reached out and gently ran her manicured nail over the curve of Sophia’s shoulder, raising goosebumps up and down Sophia’s arm. “I think you’ll find the landscape rather different next year.” The finger traced Sophia’s bicep. “Dominic tells me that you’re quite an advocate for the game. Always looking out for the younger players, protecting their dreams, making yourself available for them to tell you their problems, and so on.” She held Sophia’s gaze, her brown eyes glittering with intent. “Quite the superhero.” Her left eyebrow slowly lifted, and she leaned forward, her perfume swirling, and brushed Sophia’s cheek with her breath. “My question is what’s your kryptonite?” she whispered. Sophia’s stomach tightened. Helena pulled away, delivered a close-lipped smile which didn’t even attempt to reach her eyes, then sashayed through the players to join Dominic at the door. They exited the room without a backwards glance.

  ***

  Mel pushed off the brick wall near the exit to the carpark as Sophia turned the corner at the last step of the concrete staircase leading down from the second floor gym. Her face was tight, and the rounded shape of a fist pushed at the material of each pocket in her jacket. Sophia slowed and dropped her bag next to Mel’s. “What’s up? You need a ride?”

  Mel inhaled deeply. “No. Thanks, though.” Her eyes darted about. “I wanted to talk to you about something. I heard what Helena said to you. Well,” she twisted her lips, “not all of it, but it seemed like she was saying that the competition was going to be different next year, and…” she faded off and hoisted her shoulders to her ears. “I’m not sure if they’ll be interested in me next season.”

  “Of course they will, Mel. You’re a bloody good player.” Sophia stared at her. “Jesus, they’d be idiots not to have you.”

  Mel shook her head. “I’m not stupid, Soph. I’ve seen how the focus has been on the players with their magazine good looks.” She turned her body more squarely. “I mean, if you hadn’t have taken yourself off in that game, I would have been subbed with Erica, who really does look like she’s stepped out from a swimwear ad.”

  Sophia shook her head emphatically. “That was never going to happen, okay?”

  “See? That’s the thing that Helena was saying. You look out for us. It’s almost like you see what goes on more than Craig, or Fitz…” She trailed off, staring at the scuffed concrete, then cut her gaze to Sophia. “Do you? See what’s going on?”

  Sophia slid her hands into her pockets and regarded Mel for a moment, then nodded. “I do.” That statement was the cork popping out of the bottle, because Mel let out an enormous breath, like it was the first time she was experiencing the phenomenon, then inhaled, and released another one.

  “So, you know about how the rookies have been taste-testing the vitamins in exchange for tickets, gear, and stuff?”

  Sophia nodded.

  “If we try the pills for a season, then endorse it during the off-season, Schimmager will sponsor the league next year.” Sophia blinked. Endorsements. That’s new. She filed the little snippet away, as Mel shrugged. “I’m not going to be given publicity spots for the endorsements, though.”

  Sophia’s eyes rounded. “Why?”

  “Well, they haven’t said that exactly, but little things tell me that they won’t.”

  “Like?”

  She tapped the large dark birthmark above her left eyebrow, then waved her hand in front of her muscular torso. “I look like this. I’ve seen how the others are given tickets to amazing events and parties with celebrities, when I don’t. I do get tickets, but to different things.” Mel’s face then dropped, and she swallowed deliberately. When she continued, her voice wobbled. “Anyway, you probably can’t do anything, and I think Helena was warning you off in case you did know something. Besides I don’t want to make a big deal because I don’t want to ruin next year’s chances for the others.”

  Sophia lifted her hand, paused, then reached up and rubbed her team mate’s arm. Mel’s face was the picture of sadness, and Sophia knew her heart was breaking. God, first Naomi and now Mel. She ground her teeth together, as the acid in her stomach roiled, then the protracted silence was broken, when Sophia blew out a breath.

  “Do you reckon you could give me one of the vitamins?” She dipped her head to catch Mel’s eye.

  Mel threw a cautious glance at the exit, then the stairwell, then folded her arms protectively under her breasts. “We’re not supposed to share them with anyone. Dominic, or one of the board, gives us a week’s worth and they monitor how many we take, because we were supposed to keep increasing the number we take over the season.”

  Sophia tamped down her rage. “Were?”

  Mel pulled her neck into her wide shoulders, and pulled her eyebrows in with worry. “Some of us haven’t been keeping up. I mean, Leigh got her injury, then figured she may as well stop because she couldn’t help the program anymore. And the vitamins taste a bit weird, which we told them, and Naomi and Hara said that they’d tossed nearly two weeks worth just last Friday. I stopped a couple of weeks ago as well. We haven’t told Dominic. I think Louise is the only one still on the schedule. She reckons because it’s just vitamins, it doesn’t hurt.” Her hand shot out to grip Sophia’s forearm, and her anxious gaze held Sophia’s. “Please don’t tell them. I really would wreck everyone’s chance if they knew I’d said something.”

  Noise filled Sophia’s ears. Roaring. Like fourteen jets departing. She took a very deep, purposeful breath, but her eyes drilled holes into Mel’s face.

  “If you’ve got a couple spare, then it’d be okay to give them away, wouldn’t it? I’m not going to take them. I just want to see what all the fuss is about.” Mentioning to Mel that the pills were about to be subjected to a full laboratory test seemed unwise.

  Mel hummed, and her shoulder twitched. “Okay, then.” She bent over her sports bag, and plucked out a strip of six white pills encased in pop-out foil and plastic bubbles. “They’re the only ones I have left anyway.” Sophia slid them into her pocket, catching a glimpse of the blue Schimmager logo repeated diagonally across the foil. They looked at each other for a beat.

  “Thanks for talking to me,” said Sophia. Mel hoisted her sports bag onto her shoulder, waiting until Sophia did the same.

  “I like talking to you, Soph. You listen. It’s nice.” She turned towards the exit, and their sneakers soon crunched on the gravel of the carpark. Sophia paused, and faced Mel.

  “Please don’t give up on the league. You’re too good a player.”

  Mel sighed, and scuffed her toe on the white paint of one of the parking spots. “I’ll think about it.” She looked over Sophia’s shoulder. “Is that Cam at your moped?” Sophia spun around, and caught Cam’s quick wave. Huh.

  “Yeah, it is.”

  Mel bumped Sophia’s shoulder with her own, and her face broke into a smile for the first time that evening. “Is she your girlfriend now?”

  Sophia tipped her head, then nodded carefully, and returned the smile. “I’d like her to be.”

  Mel lifted her hand in a hello to Cam as she exited the empty carpark on her way to the train station, and Sophia, deep in thought, wandered over to Flo who was parked under a streetlight, which was frankly unnecessary as Cam’s smile flamed bright as day. It faded somewhat as she took in Sophia’s pinched expression, prompting her to reach for Sophia’s hand.

  “What’s the matter?”

  Sophia blinked, then kissed Cam’s knuckles. Then she collected Cam’s other hand and clutched both at her chest. She shook her head in disbelief.

  “Mel’s just given me some of the vitamins.” She quickly drew breath through her nose. “She’s so sad, Cam. It’s like everything is falling apart around us, and I don’t know which direction to aim my anger. I feel like I’m in a dark room with a dozen people poking at me with sticks.” Sophia swallowed, blinking rapidly
, and Cam squeezed the fingers entwined with her own. “And I don’t know what I’d say if I did go to someone. I mean, I can’t say ’Hi, there’s some weird, shitty, misogynistic crap happening and, by the way, five players are eating vitamins so they can get some free gear’.” She released Cam’s hands, tensed her fingers and throttled the air in front of her, her teeth bared in frustration. Cam paused, then ran her hands down the outside of Sophia’s arms.

  “What’s the first step?”

  “Well, I give the pills to Lin tomorrow morning so she can find out what’s in them. I don’t think she’ll find anything, though. And that’s what I mean.” Sophia tossed her hands. “There’s nothing to go to anyone about.” She waved a finger at Cam. “Like the story you’re writing. There’s no reason to publish it.”

  Cam’s face closed, her lips a thin line. “You’re projecting.” She folded her arms.

  “What?”

  “You’re projecting. You don’t want me to write it, because you feel stymied by everything. You’re not sure who to talk to, but if you did, you feel like you’re going to hurt the rookies, who you feel a sense of protection for. So you don’t do anything at all.”

  Sophia pursed her lips into the shape of a duck bill, then rolled them back into each other. “No.”

  “I’m right, though.”

  “No, you’re not!” Sophia spun around, stomped away a couple of steps, then spun back. Her mouth opened, then closed, then she turned around to the grandstand, and with her fists clenched beside her, bent forward to scream into the bitumen. The carpark embraced the echo, and the ragged sounds of Sophia’s breathing, until they were quickly replaced with the rumbling turbulence of the city. Sophia let her eyes close, and listened to her heart thrashing about in her ears. After a very long minute, then another, she blinked, turned, and walked back to Cam, who was standing beside Flo with a look of understanding on her face. Sophia flopped her arms against her hips.

  “Maybe you’re a little bit right.”

  A soft smile appeared on Cam’s lips, and she gently collected Sophia’s hands in her own. “After Lin tests the pills, we’ll have something more to work with. Something will make this story crack open, okay?”

  They gazed at each other for a while. Sophia watched the smile, the one that always seemed to be just waiting to appear, curl Cam’s lips. Her eyebrow lifted and Cam grinned, freeing her hands from Sophia’s fingers, then sliding them up Sophia’s arms, over her shoulders, to stop at her neck, her fingers curled around the back, and her thumbs on her cheeks. She brought Sophia’s face closer.

  “I think you’re wonderful,” Cam murmured. Then she pressed their lips together, and tingles scattered like confetti throughout Sophia’s entire body. Their tongues gently explored, and Sophia settled her hands quietly on Cam’s waist. Sophia massaged her lips with Cam’s, the push pull exquisite, then Cam sucked on her bottom lip and Sophia grunted with pleasure. Too soon, Cam withdrew, and Sophia sighed, a smile tugging at her mouth as she took in Cam’s thoroughly kissed lips. Then she cocked her head.

  “Why are you here?” She rolled her eyes. “Sorry. I mean, why are you here in this carpark on a Monday night?”

  Cam smirked, let her hands relax from Sophia’s neck, and travel down her torso to her hips. “I came to see Flo. Her text said she missed me.”

  Sophia gripped Cam’s waist, tickling her through the jacket. Cam giggled, and more zaps of delicious tension sparked under her skin. So good.

  “Okay, okay. I came to see you, champ. I have something for you.” She reached into her jeans pocket, and plucked out a length of white string, passing it to Sophia. With a quizzical look, Sophia pinched the ends and pulled, ending up with a piece of string about twenty centimetres long.

  “Why are you giving me string?”

  “Well, now that I have string in my flat—long story—I think it’s important that I give you a piece.” She pointed at the length in Sophia’s hands. “That’s one of many.”

  Sophia looked up, as a spark of understanding suddenly registered on her face.

  Cam’s lips quirked. “Uh huh. You don’t do strings, apparently. But I’m letting you know that I do. Strings, that is.” She pushed her glasses up, as a moment of vulnerability flashed in her eyes. “I like strings attached, Soph.”

  Sophia stared in wonder at Cam, whose teeth had kidnapped her bottom lip, and all of a sudden her heart felt much larger than the space it had been allocated.

  “Don’t be afraid of me,” Cam murmured.

  “I’m not.”

  Cam studied her. “Okay,” she said finally. “Then don’t be afraid of yourself.”

  Sophia stared down at the string, and Cam whispered, “Because I’m not afraid of you.” Sophia jerked her head up, and with the softest of touches, Cam ran her thumb along Sophia’s cheek. Sophia leaned into Cam’s hand and smiled.

  “I think that this piece of string and I might become very good friends.”

  They grinned, enjoying each other’s faces.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Tuesday dawned with the prediction that the city would encounter typical Melbourne weather, which was the general term for autumn in the morning until about eleven, followed by summer for a couple of hours, then spring for seven minutes, until winter arrived at three-thirty. Sophia twirled her scarf about her neck and trotted up the little path to Ben and Lin’s front door. She wanted to catch Lin before she left for work, so this was one of those times when using her key seemed sensible. She found her in the kitchen.

  “I’ve got some pills for you and your magical machinery at the lab,” Sophia said, dropping the strip noisily onto the bench and opening the fridge to grab the bottle of orange juice. She reached over Lin’s head and pulled a glass from the cupboard.

  “It’s not packaged like any pills I’ve seen before,” said Lin, as she flipped the strip over and inspected the labelling. She ran her thumbnail along the indentation. “The Schimmager name and logo are here, but the active ingredients and amount, batch numbers, and expiry dates are missing. That info has to be repeated once every two units.”

  Sophia rinsed the glass, and shoved the orange juice away. “But it doesn’t matter if it’s vitamins, right?”

  “Mm. The rules for supplements and natural therapies are a bit rubbery, but they’re still meant to list the ingredients.” She tossed the strip into her handbag. “Well, I can’t get the results to you straight away. Probably a week, maybe less.”

  Sophia hugged her shoulders. “Totally fine. I hope six is enough. I think they’re the last pills available unless I can get Louise to give me some.” She leaned on the bench. “So, hey? You looking forward to your date tonight?”

  Lin laughed. “The date five years ago when your brother and I met?” She grinned. “Absolutely. I’m not gonna get many more date nights soon, but this one is always special.”

  Sophia chuckled. “I still laugh at how typically Ben he was when he met you.”

  Lin laughed again. “Yes. Opening line—”

  They said it together, “Shit! You’re short,” and cracked up, which is the state Ben found them in when he wandered out from the bedroom.

  “Oh man, every year? It was one line. I’ve said tonnes of nice things since then.” Lin went over, reached up to drag his head down, then kissed him soundly on the lips.

  “You always say nice things, babe.” She patted his bum, winked, and laughed as he blushed. Sophia smiled at them. Then, determined to not fall into a pit of morose contemplation, she double-tapped the bench.

  “Are you walking back to the store with me or coming in a bit later?”

  Ben kissed Lin, then pointed a finger at Sophia. “Now. Let’s do it.”

  Sophia had little time to mull over anything—football, Mel’s revelations, and who to talk to about it all—for the rest of the day, as the coming weekend was the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, a huge black-tie occasion on the Melbourne events calendar. A non-stop parade of staff from many of the f
ive-star restaurants in the city dropped into the store, picking up their supplies. Each restaurant would operate what was essentially their own pop-up stall, and Provender provided many of the beautiful ingredients that went into the two signature dishes that each restaurant showcased. However, thoughts of Cam continued to smoulder, with the occasional ember sparking into the forefront of her mind. Ben, who was packing straw around bottles of truffle oil, caught the stifled grin as Sophia remembered last night’s kiss and string presentation.

  “You are so gone on her,” he said through a snigger.

  Sophia glared, her hands clutching thin vials of vanilla bean pods. “I am not gone on anybody. What does that even mean?”

  “But you’re on your way, aren’t you?” They regarded each other, statues amongst the groceries. Then Sophia separated the vanilla bean tubes into the individual restaurant crates, and rolled her eyes.

  “Keep boxing stuff, little brother. Otherwise you’ll never get to your date.” As if to prove exactly how not gone she was on Cam, Sophia managed to wait until lunch to send a quick text.

  ‘Hey. Still got my string. We’ve been hanging out. If I tug on it, will you suddenly appear?’

  The winky emoji preceded the words in the reply. ‘You know that tugging on loose threads causes things to unravel. Are you trying to unravel me, Soph?’

  The flash of desire had left Sophia slightly breathless.

  Ben and Sophia couldn’t have finished all the work that was needed without Yousef, who was an organisational god, and had directed foot traffic, as if, in a past life, he’d been a police officer on duty at wonky traffic lights. Ben locked the door, grabbed Yousef’s shoulders and pulled him into a quick hug as they stood on the footpath later that afternoon.

  “You’re awesome, man. Have a great night.” He then pointed at Sophia. “Train hard, kiddo.” Sophia grinned, and pointed to him in return.